Many Rangers fans continue to wait for news from the team. After eight losses in the last nine games, the Blueshirts have fallen to 8th in the conference and are now in danger of dropping out of playoff contention altogether.
The biggest speculation of course concerns head coach Tom Renney, who is widely expected to be on the hot seat after recent performances of the team. Renney for his part continues to keep a positive attitude, but then again, what other choice does he have?
For that matter what choice does Glen Sather have? After loading the team up with cap busting salaries, the GM has almost no options other than to fire the coach. He has even fewer options with Paul Mara out for 2-4 weeks, and the likes of Dmitri Kalinin, Wade Redden and Michal Rozsival chewing up cap space, while underperforming.
But the defense isn’t even the most pressing problem. The trio of Chris Drury, Markus Naslund and Scott Gomez (all scheduled to be on the Rangers roster next year too) have produced little offense in the recent slide, and the only potential help appears to be the possibility that the Rangers might pick up Sean Avery off of re-entry waivers.
Even the addition of Avery would be problematic for Sather. After failing miserably in Dallas, The Grate One comes with another four years at $1.9M (or half his salary), which under normal circumstances would seem worthwhile…but with the Rangers struggling to resign the likes of Nikolai Zherdev, Brandon Dubinsky, Ryan Callahan, Marc Staal and Nigel Dawes over the next couple of years…it’s going to be a challenge.
All of this makes for an interesting back drop to tonight’s game against the Islanders, who broke their own losing streak earlier this week.
The Rangers seem to make hard work of their struggling rivals in recent games, and the sputtering offense, and inconsistent defense this time…may very well cost Tom Renney his job.
In minor news, Sean Avery is scheduled to make his second start for the Wolf Pack tonight as they face the Islanders’ affiliate. Defenseman Vladimir Denisov was suspended four games.
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